1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to BIOS setting methods, and more particularly, to a method for setting BIOS and storing settings through a setting interface for a second setting document.
2. Description of Related Art
When a computer is booted, the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) stored in a ROM thereof checks peripheral devices and then performs initialization. When the BIOS confirms that the peripheral devices are ready, the computer enters the operating system (OS).
FIG. 1 shows the boot process of a computer. In step 100, when powered on, the computer enters a boot state. Then, in step 110, the BIOS installed in a ROM of the computer performs POST (Power On Self Test). Subsequently, in step 120, if a specific key such as a Delete key or F2 key is pressed to enter a BIOS setting interface, the process goes to step 130; otherwise, the process goes to step 160 for continuing the boot process. In step 130, various options are provided in the BIOS setting interface for setting various hardware parameters of the computer, such as the boot sequence, CPU clock, whether to activate peripheral devices, for example, hard disk, floppy disk, built-in network card, time, date and so on. In step 140, after BIOS settings are completed, whether to store the BIOS settings is determined, if not, the previous settings will not be changed and the process goes to step 160 for continuing the boot process; otherwise, the process goes to step 150. In step 150, the BIOS settings are stored in the memory. Thereafter, the process goes to step 160. In step 160, the boot process is continued.
However, since the settings of the options are stored in a RAM of the computer and retained by the battery, as long as there is no need to add or delete hardware or change hardware parameters, it is not necessary to enter the BIOS setting interface for setting the same hardware parameters in future boot processes. The BIOS can set the computer by using the settings stored in the RAM. If the battery is out of power or a checksum error occurs, it will lead to loss of the data stored in the RAM. At this time, the BIOS loads the default value and it becomes necessary to reset all the options. If a setting error occurs or parameters are not correct, the boot process becomes abnormal, which may cause boot failure or hardware failure. As a result, the computer must be rebooted and the BIOS setting process must be repeated again, thereby resulting in considerable inconvenience.
Further, according to the current BIOS setting method, computers of the same configuration must be inconveniently set one by one, thereby resulting in a waste of labor and time.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a BIOS setting method that facilitates BIOS re-settings and meanwhile allows BIOS settings to be performed to computers of the same configuration in a batch mode so as to overcome the above drawback.